


On the Edge of Greatness

by ReginaNocis



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Adora Remains with the Horde (She-Ra), Catra (She-Ra) Leaves the Horde, Catra (She-Ra)-centric, Catra as She-Ra, F/F, I mean- only temperarily, This is just me messing around
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:34:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24987622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReginaNocis/pseuds/ReginaNocis
Summary: ‘Catra,’ the wind called. She reached the sword and stopped, biting her lip. Against her better judgement, Catra reached forward to touch the hilt. The moment her fingers felt the cool metal, the light grew even brighter and a force blasted her off of her feet.ORWhat would happen if Catra found the Sword of Power instead of Adora?
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Catra & Bow (She-Ra), Catra & Glimmer (She-Ra)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 107





	On the Edge of Greatness

**Author's Note:**

> This started as just a random thought floating around in my head and turned into... this. I don't know if I'll continue it or not. It's ended in a pretty good place if I choose to just leave it be.

Catra sighed as she swung her legs over the ledge. Of course Adora had been made a Force Captain. And of course Shadow Weaver didn’t think she was ready for the field. For her entire life, Shadow Weaver had never said she was good enough for _anything_. It didn’t matter that she and Adora were evenly matched. It didn’t matter that Catra had managed to beat Adora at least half of the time they ‘battled’. It didn’t matter that Catra tried harder at _everything_ she did, just to be noticed.

Admittedly, she hadn’t reacted well to Adora’s good news. She should have been happy for her best friend. She should have congratulated her and waited until Adora was out of sight before breaking down. At least she hadn’t cried in front of Adora. It could have gone worse. She turned the broach over in her hand, staring down at it without really seeing. She knew it was a matter of time before Adora came looking for it- for her.

Sure enough, not even ten minutes after Catra had sat down, Adora was climbing over the edge and plopping down beside her. “I’m sorry, Catra. I should have tried harder to convince Shadow Weaver to let you come with me. I should have told her that either we both go or neither of us do. I’m going to fix this, I promise,” Adora said softly, leaning against Catra.

“No, don’t do that. It’s okay. This is your big day! Here, have this back,” Catra replied, flicking the broach at her. She was trying to sound happy and lighthearted, but she’d never been good at fooling Adora.

“You don’t have to pretend with me,” Adora told her, still keeping her voice soft.

“I just… I want to leave this place. I want to see the world, and to fight important battles! I don’t want to sit here and train anymore. We’re both good enough for this, and Shadow Weaver knows it!” Catra ranted, clenching her hands into fists.

“So let’s go see the world,” Adora told her, pushing to her feet. She held up the hand she’d been hiding, showing off a shiny silver key.

“No way! You stole a vehicle?” Catra gasped, scrambling to her feet.

“Borrowed!” Adora laughed. “As in we have to bring it back!”

They raced each other to the hanger, and Adora pointed to the flying craft that she’d borrowed (stolen) the key for. Catra didn’t fight her as Adora took the lead, steering them carefully out of the Fright Zone. As soon as they were racing across the grass, Catra leapt to her feet to try to steal the controls.

“Let me steer!” she laughed, yanking the stick out of Adora’s hands. Adora gasped in surprise and lost her balance, but she didn’t fall out of the craft. It didn’t take her more than a few seconds to get back to her feet, and the battle for the controls began.

“Let go!” Adora told her, fighting back an obvious smile. Catra bit back her laughter as they tried to yank it out of each other’s hands.

“No, let me drive it! I’ve always wanted to,” Catra countered. They were so busy playfully fighting that neither of them noticed the edge of the forest until they were inside. They stared around with wide eyes. “What is this place?”

“I think it’s the Whispering Woods,” Adora replied, making the craft slow down considerably. “Every troupe that Hordak sends in here never comes back.”

“Let’s go in!” Catra grinned, forcing the controls away from Adora once again. They were speeding through the trees before Adora could react.

“Catra! Slow down!” She tried to pull the controls away, but Catra’s grip was too strong. “Watch ou- Tree!”

Catra screamed as Adora yanked the controls away, and she fell backwards. Unfortunately, the new angle meant that Catra fell off of the craft completely. She tried to grab at branches on her way down, but there was no slowing her decent. She had only a second to panic before she hit the bushes and blacked out.

_Catra blinked awake in the dim light of the forest. She groaned, pushing herself into a sitting position just as a light flared in front of her. She gasped as a large sword started to glow, illuminating the trees around her._

_“What is that?” she whispered to herself, crawling out of the bush. She stood slowly, staring in awe at the beautiful sword. She took a few steps towards it, drawn forward by some inexplicable force. She could hear a faint whispering in the wind; a soft voice that seemed to be calling her name._

_‘Catra,’ the wind called. She reached the sword and stopped, biting her lip. Against her better judgement, Catra reached forward to touch the hilt. The moment her fingers felt the cool metal, the light grew even brighter and a force blasted her off of her feet._

“Catra… Catra!” Adora was shouting, shaking her shoulders. She looked panicked, and Catra had to smirk.

“Aww, were you worried about me?” she asked, swatting Adora’s hands away from her arms. “Calm down, I’m fine.”

It took her a few extra seconds to remember the sword, and she shot to her feet when she did. “Where’s the sword?” she asked, looking around Adora frantically. “It was right here! Where could it have gone?”

“Sword?” Adora frowned. She reached out to poke Catra’s forehead carefully. “Did you hit your head on the way down? Are you brain damaged? Don’t be brain damaged! Shadow Weaver is going to _kill_ us!”

“Hardly,” Catra muttered, rolling her eyes. “I’m not brain damaged.”

“Are you sure?” Adora asked, her eyes narrowing suspiciously. “Because there is no sword, and there never was one.”

“I… I could have sworn,” Catra started, but she stopped herself. There was no use in arguing with Adora. If she hadn’t seen the sword, she wouldn’t believe it existed. And Catra couldn’t prove it, since she could no longer see the sword either. “Let’s just go home.”

“Yes, please!” Adora sighed, clearly relieved. “That’s the first thing you’ve said that makes sense. We should get your head checked when we’re back.”

“I am _fine_ , Adora!” Catra rolled her eyes. “And how would we explain getting my head checked, anyways? We can’t admit that we snuck out. Shadow Weaver really would kill m- us!”

“Well… it’s not like it’s uncommon for you to hit your head,” Adora pointed out. “We could say you did it in training today.”

“You mean the training that I only joined at the end?” Catra asked flatly. “I just need sleep. I’ll be fine in the morning.”

Thankfully, Adora seemed to accept that as an explanation. At the very least, she stopped trying to get Catra to admit to being brain damaged and flew them both home in silence. She didn’t even put up a fight when Catra told her a very pointed ‘good night’ and laid down at the foot of Adora’s bed.

(It was routine by now for them to sleep in the same bed. They both had nightmares both nights, and it was easier to be able to wake up and immediately see each other. Catra couldn’t usually get sleep after a nightmare woke her up, so she’d spend the rest of her night making sure that Adora was okay. It helped her to calm down.)

Catra managed three whole hours of sleep before her dream turned… strange. Images shifted faster than she could follow- the Whispering Woods, some kind of temple, a sky full of stars, one of Etheria’s moons, and then… the sword. The same whispering voice was calling her name, begging her to find it without actually using the words. The voice got louder with each word, until it shouted her name. She jolted awake, breathing heavily in alarm.

She sat up and pulled on her uniform, careful not to make a sound. She didn’t want to wake Adora. She made it out into the hallway before someone grabbed her arm and yanked her backwards.

“Catra! What do you think you’re doing?” Adora hissed, glaring at her best friend. Catra flinched under the look, but stood her ground.

“I have to go back,” she said softly. “I have to see for myself that the sword wasn’t real. Something is calling to me, Adora, and I have to find out what it is.”

“Fine, then I’m coming with you,” Adora sighed, squaring her shoulders. Catra was already shaking her head.

“No, Adora. I need to do this alone. Cover for me? I won’t be gone long enough for anyone to miss me,” Catra replied. They had to be silent for a few moments as a guard passed in the next hall over. Catra pulled her arm away and gave Adora a small smile. “It’ll be fine, I promise.”

“Okay…” Adora said after a moment. She was still clearly skeptical, but was apparently willing to let Catra go. “Promise me you’ll be right back.”

“I promise,” Catra told her, smiling. “You worry too much, Adora.”

“I worry just the right amount, especially since you don’t seem to worry at all,” Adora countered. She was smiling now, relaxing. Good; Catra had managed to fool her. It wasn’t often that she could pull that off.

“I’ll be back before you can even miss me,” Catra promised. (As she was walking away, she could have sworn she heard Adora whisper, _“I already miss you”_ , but that was just her own wishful thinking.)

It wasn’t as easy to sneak out the second time. Maybe that was because the guards were being more vigilant that usually. More likely, it was because she was alone this time. Everything was easier when Adora was with her. People just genuinely trusted Adora, and nobody expected her to be up to no good. Catra, on the other hand, was known for her troublemaking.

(It had nothing at all to do with the fact that Adora made everything around her fade into the background. For all Catra knew, they had been caught multiple times and had to run away from guards. She couldn’t have told you if her life depended on it.)

She took the same craft as before. She had conveniently forgotten to return the key when Adora had asked her to, so it was easy to just take it out again. The hanger door was already open, as if someone _wanted_ her to leave. Luck was apparently on her side, for once. She made it all the way to the Whispering Woods before she started to doubt herself. She left the craft at the edge of the woods, deciding that it would be easier to continue on foot. She hadn’t forgotten what Adora had said about troops never returning from the woods, but had chosen to believe that she’d find her way.

Catra walked for what felt like hours without finding anything at all. “Oh, come on. I know you want to be found. You kept me awake! Where are you hiding? You have to be real.” She was aware that she was talking to herself, but she just didn’t care. It made her feel better to speak her thoughts. There was no answer.

A few more miles into the forest, something caught her eye. The same shining light that she’d seen before was lighting up in the distance. She recognized the color of the light. “There!” Catra ran through the trees in her excitement. She wasn’t crazy! This was real! “Oh, just wait until I can show Adora she was wrong!”

Catra laughed almost hysterically as she crashed into the clearing. There it was. The golden hilt of the sword stuck out over the thorn bush that it was embedded into. The unnatural, shining light was almost too bright for her sensitive eyes. She didn’t stop moving forward until she was right in front of the sword. The same voice whispered her name in the wind, and she reached for the hilt with building excitement. Just as she was about to touch it, a voice rang out through the clearing.

“Back away, Horde scum!” a girl cried out, brandishing her fist towards Catra.

“What?” Catra asked, her voice flat. “Who are you?”

“As if we’re going to tell you that!” the girl shot back. At the exact same time, the boy who was with her gave an actual answer.

“I’m Bow, and this is Glimmer,” he told Catra, speaking over the girl (Glimmer, apparently). Glimmer smacked his arm in frustration.

“We can’t give our names to a Horde soldier!” she hissed. Catra rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the sword- which was disappearing in a cloud of actual sparkles.

“What?” Catra snapped again, spinning to face the very smug Glimmer. “You’re a princess!”

“Duh,” Glimmer smirked. It had the same feeling as her sticking her tongue out, and Catra _hated_ it. “Now, put your hands up!”

Bow was directing an arrow at her, ready to fire at a moment’s notice. Glimmer was aiming _her own sword_ at her, glaring in a way that Catra was sure she thought was menacing. Catra rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips.

“Does this usually work for you?” she asked. She kept her tone bored, like she could think of a million things she’d rather be doing. (And really, she could. Most of them involved Adora, if she was being honest.) “Because it’s not working for me. Give me my sword and we can go about our business.”

“I’m not giving this to you! You’re Horde scum!” Glimmer shot back angrily. “Surrender, and we won’t hurt you.”

“Why don’t you surrender, and I won’t drag you back to the Fright Zone with me,” Catra taunted. It was a lie; whether they surrendered or not they’d be going back with her. Shadow Weaver would have to forgive her for leaving if she brought a _princess_ back with her, right?

“Never!” Glimmer shouted. She disappeared in a cloud of sparkles, and before Catra could react, her arms were being yanked behind her back.

“Hey!” she shrieked, but it was too late. The princess had her hands tied, and Bow was already moving forward to pull her along. “Let me go!”

“You’re coming with us,” Glimmer told her, back to smirking. Even though Catra wasn’t in a place to argue, she couldn’t help but drag her feet. It wasn’t in her to just submit. “Ugh, Bow, just make sure she’s with us, okay?”

“Yeah, sure,” Bow agreed. He sounded amused, because of course he did. It was just Catra’s luck that she’d run into the two lamest rebellion members. She let the silence go on for a while. At least, until she got bored.

“Where are we going?” she groaned, pitching her voice obnoxiously. She saw Glimmer clench her fists ahead of them and grinned. It was far too easy to rile her up.

“We are _going_ to Bright Moon,” she snapped without turning around. Catra wrinkled her nose in distaste. “You’ll be judged there, and probably locked up forever.”

“Yeah, see, that doesn’t work for me,” Catra informed her. She was ignored.

“Uh, Glimmer, are you sure we’re going the right way?” Bow asked gently. “I think it’s more to the left.”

“I know where I’m going!” Glimmer snapped. “Just… stay with the prisoner!”

Glimmer disappeared in a shower of sparkles and Catra rolled her eyes. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Bow shake his head in exasperation. “I’m sorry about her. She’s not usually like this. She’s been having a lot of trouble with your people and her mother… let’s just say it’s been a long few weeks. What’s your name?”

“As if I’m going to tell you my name,” Catra scoffed.

“You’re not very nice,” Bow pointed out, frowning a little.

“Excuse me for not wanting to exchange pleasantries with my captor,” Catra retorted. It made Bow stop for a second, at the very least.

“You’re right. I can see how that might be unappealing to you,” he sighed. “Still, there’s no reason we have to be enemies.”

“Oh, spare me your conversion speech. It’s not going to happen,” Catra informed him. “I was born and raised in the hoard. There’s no lie you could tell me that I’ll believe.”

Before Bow could answer, they were interrupted by an angry scream from the distance. “Glimmer!” Bow shouted, pulling Catra forward at a much faster pace to catch up to her. Though she wouldn’t admit it, Catra was a little worried herself.

It wasn’t that she liked these two rebels! It was just that whatever had made Glimmer scream was probably dangerous to her, too. And they were rushing right towards it. Thankfully, there was nothing of danger in the clearing with the princess. It was just full of ruined buildings- or what she assumed were once buildings. She was curious, but kept the appearance of boredom.

“Glimmer! Are you okay?” Bow asked, checking her over carefully. She had tears in her eyes but was otherwise completely fine. She gestured wordlessly to the nearest heap of rock, and… Catra’s eyes went wide when she saw the Horde’s symbol painted on it.

“Wait… what happened here?” Catra asked, clenching her fists. “Is this some kind of trick? A joke? It’s not funny.”

“This is no joke! This is what you _do_!” Glimmer shouted at her. “The Horde destroys lives! That’s why we fight. That’s why we _can’t_ lose! And _that_ is why you’re coming back to Bright Moon with us- where you can’t hurt anyone anymore!”

“The Horde wouldn’t do this,” Catra said automatically. She still felt frozen inside, like she was just waking up from a bad dream. This couldn’t be real… but it must be. It made sense, in a sick way. The way that Shadow Weaver valued Adora more… it had to be because Adora was more likely to mindlessly follow her. The reason she hadn’t been allowed to go out on missions was because Shadow Weaver _knew_ that Catra wouldn’t be okay with mindless destruction!

“They do things like this _every single day_ ,” Glimmer snapped. “Don’t tell me you didn’t know.”

“Glimmer, I don’t think she did,” Bow said softly. He’d been watching Catra this whole time, and she hadn’t managed to keep up her bored façade.

“Don’t fall for her tricks!” Glimmer spat. “She’s a Horde soldier! Just look at her!”

Catra wasn’t really sure what she looked like in that moment. She was feeling distraught- something she wasn’t used to feeling at all. But instead of having time to examine her feelings, they were all distracted by a nearby roar.

“ _What_ was _that_?!” Catra demanded, backing away. Her back hit a tree, and she froze. It wasn’t like she’d get very far with a teleporting princess standing a few feet away from her.

“I don’t know!” Glimmer exclaimed, frantically studying the trees around them like they’d offer up an answer. Unfortunately, they did. A bug like creature was crawling it’s way out of the trees on the other side of the ruins. It was an odd shade of gray and moved in an almost mechanical way- and it was staring right at the sword in Glimmer’s hands.

“Glimmer, we’ve gotta _go_!” Bow shouted, running over to her. He laid a hand on her shoulder, and Catra just knew she was going to teleport them away and leave her to die. Fortunately for her, Glimmer couldn’t seem to teleport. She shimmered, but fell to her knees when she tried to teleport away.

“I can’t!” she gasped, staring up at the rapidly approaching bug with wide eyes. Bow drew an arrow back and let it fly, but the bug swatted it out of the air. And as soon as it was close enough, it swiped it’s claws across Bow and Glimmer, sending them crashing into a tree. They didn’t get up.

Catra watched this with wide eyes, afraid for the first time in a long time. She was alone here. The rebels couldn’t save her. There was no Adora to protect her and watch her back. There was just Catra here, alone, and defenseless. Or was she? The shiny sword was lying on the ground just a few feet ahead of her. She could reach it, and she could get away safely.

With that goal in mind, Catra darted forward and grabbed the hilt of the sword. She turned to run in the opposite direction, just to escape from this nightmare, but the shouts of Glimmer and Bow made her pause. If she ran back to the Horde, she’d never get the chance to find out more about what was happening in Etheria. What if Glimmer was right? What if the Horde was really as awful as she’d said? How would Catra _ever_ know if she went back there right now?

She turned back to watch Glimmer throwing shimmering bolts at the bug, but they didn’t seem to do anything against it. Bow was seemingly unconscious, completely unable to fight back. They were completely doomed if Catra ran away now. And while yesterday that might not have bothered her… today, she was confused. All she knew was that she didn’t have to be alone.

“Hey, bug! Over here!” Catra shouted, brandishing the sword at the bug. It turned to face her slowly, making the same roar as before. Catra had only a moment to realize that she was making a _huge_ mistake before the bug rushed at her. She froze, and a voice spoke softly in her head, urging her on.

_“You must fight… for the honor of Greyskull.”_

Catra gritted her teeth and raised the sword even higher, suddenly just… knowing what she had to do. “For the honor of Greyskull!” she shouted. The blinding light surrounded her, and when it faded away, Catra had completely changed. She stood at nearly eight feet tall, and her hair had grown so much longer. Her outfit had also changed completely. Gone was the red and maroon of her Horde uniform. In it’s place, she stood in a white outfit with golden accents and a bright red cape. The sword shimmered in her hands, leaving her feeling more powerful than she ever had in her life.

As the bug reached her, she jumped into the air and landed heavily on it’s head. She was actually laughing as she brought the sword crashing down, damaging it’s head. She did a flip off of the front just as the whole thing came crashing to the gound. She knelt carefully as she landed, barely out of breath at all. She felt amazing!

“What did you do?” Glimmer demanded as she struggled to her feet. The shock of hearing her voice broke the spell of the moment, and Catra accidentally dropped the sword. Glimmer hurried to pick it up as Catra went back to her normal self.

“I… I don’t know,” Catra admitted softly. She was staring down at herself in surprise, holding her hands in front of her face. They were the same claws that she’d always had. She was the same Catra that she’d always been. But… she felt different now. Stronger.

“Well… you’re not doing it again,” Glimmer told her. She would have argued, or even fought with the princess to steal _her_ sword back, but she could see how shaken Glimmer really was. Thankfully, Bow was pulling himself up off of the ground at that very moment. It seemed that they’d all come out unscathed this time.

“We need to go,” Bow told them. The bug was starting to move as well. Glimmer watched it warily as it moved to it’s feet. Bow ran the distance to get to them, trying to draw an arrow with shaky hands. “Give her the sword! Do the thing again!”

“I don’t know how!” Catra cried. Glimmer seemed to be holding the sword even tighter at Bow’s prompting instead of handing it over, so it wasn’t going to work even if she magically figured out what she’d done. (She knew what she’d done, but the thought of doing it again so soon scared her.)

“Gah, it’s no good! We can’t fight it!” Glimmer snapped. She grabbed onto Catra’s arm tightly- tight enough to make her yelp- and wrapped an arm around Bow. Without warning, the three of them dissolved into a cloud of sparkles.

When they reformed, they were outside of what appeared to be a temple of some kind. The door was firmly sealed shut, and no amount of pounding on it from Bow and Glimmer was making it open. Even as she watched, Glimmer was wavering on her feet. Teleporting the three of them had exhausted her. Catra looked up at the door with narrowed eyes, freezing when she managed to read the inscription.

“Guys, I think that’s the password written on it,” she called out. Bow turned to stare at her, but Glimmer didn’t even look her way.

“Yeah right, as if you can read First One writing,” Glimmer snapped. She kept pounding on the door, but Catra bristled.

“It says ‘Eternia’,” she snapped right back. As soon as she said the words, the door glowed brightly and opened into a dark cavern. The bug was just breaking through the trees and moving towards them as Bow dragged Catra and Glimmer inside the cavern. The door sealed shut behind them.

“What is this place?” Bow asked, frowning into the darkness. The only light was coming from the faint glowing of the sword. They couldn’t see more than two inches in front of their faces.

“I have a better question. How can you read ancient writing in a language that nobody has understood in thousands of years?” Glimmer demanded, pointing her finger into Catra’s face.

“Wha- don’t blame me for this! I don’t know how I knew, I just did!” Catra replied, clenching her fists angrily. “You’re welcome for saving you, by the way.”

“As if I’d ever thank Horde scum,” Glimmer spat. But every time she said the words ‘Horde scum’, she seemed to be getting less angry about it. Even her glare was softer now that Catra had saved their lives instead of running away.

“Thank you,” Bow told Catra softly as Glimmer started to walk through the darkness. Catra ignored him. She chose to watch Glimmer ahead of them as she studied the sword. She even heard her muttering ‘For the honor of Greyskull’ once, as if she was trying to get the sword’s magic to work for her. Catra was genuinely relieved when the sword did nothing.

“Whatcha doing?” Bow asked, catching up to Glimmer.

“Wha- nothing! I’m not doing anything!” Glimmer replied quickly. Catra laughed softly behind them. She was the _worst_ liar that Catra had ever seen, and that was including Adora.

Catra rubbed her arms as she thought of Adora. She missed her best friend, like an ache in her heart. She’d never meant to run off and have an adventure without her, and it was starting to look like she wouldn’t see Adora for a very long time. The further she got into this journey with Glimmer and Bow, the more she was seeing that she couldn’t go back to the Horde.

Glimmer was a princess, and while she was vicious, it wasn’t without cause. She wasn’t evil. She didn’t attack without a reason. She didn’t have razor sharp teeth or claws, and she seemed to have decent control of her magic. Even as she watched, Catra could see that she’d exhausted herself using them to protect herself and her friend. And… she’d even protected Catra. She could have left her to die instead of using the extra energy to teleport her, but she hadn’t.

What would Adora think of all of this? Would she believe Catra? Or would she turn her back on her best friend? She might hate Catra for leaving and not coming back like she’d promised. Maybe she’d make it her mission to destroy Catra. That seemed to be all the Horde wanted to do- cause as much destruction and terror as they could. Did Shadow Weaver know what Hordak was _really_ doing? She must. Catra only hated her more, knowing that she was being trained to destroy everything that might be good in Etheria. Those ruins had been a village, she was sure. How many civilians had died because of the Horde soldiers? No wonder Glimmer seemed to hate her.

She almost didn’t notice when they reached the large chamber that seemed to be the only real room in this temple. “Turn on the lights,” Bow told her, looking giddy as he waited for her to perform some kind of magic trick.

“And how do you expect me to do that? With a magic spell? There’s no word for that written here; I can’t just pull one out of my mind,” Catra told him, rolling her eyes.

“Oh, forget her, she’s useless,” Glimmer retorted. She raised her hands, but Bow grabbed her arm in warning.

“Glimmer, you can’t use your magic anymore. You don’t have anywhere to recharge here, and we’re miles away from Bright Moon. We need you to be okay,” he reminded her. Catra forced a cruel laugh.

“What, you mean you have to recharge your magical powers to use them?” she taunted. The princess took the bait. Glimmer gritted her teeth in anger and formed the biggest ball of sparkly light that Catra had ever seen. She tossed it into the air, and the room lit up in unnaturally bright light.

“Whoa,” Bow gasped, staring at the wall in front of them. “It’s you!”

“No it isn’t! She doesn’t look anything like me,” Catra shot back.

“Not you now, but you with the sword!” Bow countered. Catra couldn’t really argue. Her ears flattened against her head as she stared up at the beautiful mural that took up the entire wall. There was writing underneath it that Catra could read effortlessly. It still took her by surprise. “What does it say?”

“It says… She-Ra,” Catra read out loud. The reaction was instant. The chamber lit up even brighter, and a flickering hologram appeared in front of them.

“Hello, Administrator. What is your query?” the hologram asked.

“Oh, good! How do we get out of here?” Bow asked, bouncing forward.

“What is your query?” the hologram asked.

“Uh… Hello? How do we find the exit?” Bow asked.

“What is your query?” the hologram asked again. Glimmer groaned.

“I think it’s broken,” Catra pointed out helpfully. Glimmer shot her a glare as she walked over to inspect the hologram.

“It’s thousands of years old,” Glimmer pointed out. “I’m surprised it turned on at all.”

Catra started to raise her arm to stop Glimmer from trying to touch the hologram, but it was too late. Glimmer stuck her entire arm through the hologram’s torso, and the light in the room immediately took on a red tint.

“No administrator detected,” the hologram said. “Intruders will be dealt with.”

“Oh, that doesn’t sound good,” Bow groaned. “Why can’t we catch a break?”

Before either of them could come up with an answer, the doors around the room that they hadn’t really noticed before began to slam shut. Two of them crumbled on impact, and the entire temple began to shake. The ceiling was starting to crumble. They all moved to the center of the room quickly, dodging debris as they went.

“Give her the sword! Maybe she can fix this!” Bow told Glimmer.

“Are you _crazy_?” Glimmer demanded.

“We need She-Ra!” Bow shouted back.

Meanwhile, Catra was trying every phrase that had gotten them to this point. “Eternia! She-Ra! I’m the freaking administrator! Eternia!” she shouted, clenching her fists. Nothing seemed to work. She needed the sword.

Just as it seemed Glimmer was going to admit defeat and hand the sword over, she shocked them both. She took Bow’s hand and threw her arm around Catra this time, practically slamming the sword into Catra’s chest. A falling chunk of the ceiling was seconds away from smashing them when they faded into a cloud of sparkles.

They came back together in the air, fifty feet away from the temple’s entrance. Glimmer was unconscious, much to both Bow’s and Catra’s alarm. Catra had a single moment to be relieved that the bug was gone before they were falling through the air. At the last moment, Bow pulled an arrow from his quiver and fired it towards the ground. It unfurled into a net that caught them. Bow and Glimmer landed on top of Catra, and her last thought before she passed out was at least Adora wasn’t here to see this _massive_ failure.

She woke up first. Instead of running off, she helped Bow down to the ground. (Well, to be honest, she sort of dropped him onto the ground from the net. It was only five feet, so she really didn’t feel bad.) He was awake at the impact, so she recruited him to help her get Glimmer safely to the ground. She really couldn’t say why she was helping them, anymore. They didn’t have any information that she didn’t already know, now. It was an odd sense of loyalty that had her sticking around to make sure they were okay, now. She knew her life would be far easier if she went off on her own to find answers, but something was telling her she needed to stay with them, at least for a while longer.

Glimmer blinked herself awake not even ten minutes later. Catra was watching her from her place against a nearby tree, cleaning under her nails with a piece of bark. It was supposed to look intimidating, but she could tell from the look in Bow’s eyes that she was failing at that.

“Why are you still here?” Glimmer demanded. “Bow and I aren’t exactly maximum security, you know. You could have escaped several times over, so what’s making you stay?”

“I don’t know,” Catra admitted, much to both of their shock. Only Bow seemed to have expected her to tell the truth. “Look, clearly the Horde isn’t telling me everything. If I go back there, it’ll be like I’m willingly closing my eyes to the truth. I don’t want to do that anymore. I don’t have any interest in the two of you, but I know that if I stick with you, I’m more likely to get the answers that I need.”

“The queen will be able to tell us more about She-Ra,” Bow said confidently. “She knows the most about ancient history.”

“Yes, rub in the fact that I’m the daughter of an angelic being,” Glimmer grumbled. But she didn’t argue with what Bow said, which meant that he was probably right. Catra would take it.

“Then we should be going to Bright Moon,” she sighed.

“Don’t think that just because you’re coming willingly means we’ll go easy on you,” Glimmer informed her. “You’re still a Horde soldier, and we can’t forgive that.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Catra rolled her eyes. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d ever escaped a punishment. She’d gotten pretty good at sneaking away from Shadow Weaver, and that had to be harder than breaking out of a rebellion prison. As angry as Glimmer was, she didn’t seem like the type to carry out an execution. The worst they’d do would be locking her up, and she’d been able to pick a lock with her tail since she was a small child.

“We need to hit up a town before we go to Bright Moon. They’ll be able to give us supplies and transportation. And it’ll be a safe place to rest,” Bow was saying. Glimmer nodded along.

“I think Thaymor is the closest town,” Glimmer told him, brushing dirt off of her dress absently. “A couple hours walk at most.”

Catra paused for a moment, certain she’d heard the name Thaymor before. Where had she heard it? She couldn’t place it. She shrugged it off, watching her two companions preparing for the short trip to this town for supplies.

“We shouldn’t stop to rest, though. We’ve got a Horde soldier with us. What if they find out what she is? They’d chase us out of town and you _know_ my mother would hear about it. We’ll just get supplies and move on. We can be to Bright Moon by morning,” Glimmer told him. Bow nodded, but he didn’t look like he really agreed.

“Why do you follow her?” Catra asked as she fell into step beside him. Glimmer was far enough away from them that she wouldn’t hear. “She’s a vicious princess!”

“You’ve clearly never met a princess before,” Bow chuckled. “Glimmer can come off a little… harsh, but she’s my best friend. I’d do anything for her.”

Catra carefully didn’t point out that he clearly had stronger feelings than friendship for the princess. She’d noticed them both acting more like a couple than best friends. (Not that she could really talk… but she didn’t think about that. Not ever.) Instead, she kept her opinions to herself and walked in silence the rest of the way to Thaymor.

Bow stopped her at the edge of the trees, and Glimmer shared a look with him that had Catra automatically on edge. “What?” she demanded.

“You can’t go into town looking like that,” Bow told her gently. “You look like a Horde soldier, and the people of Thaymor are not going to be okay with that.”

“Get rid of the ridiculous headband,” Glimmer told her, much less gently. “There’s not much else we can do. Here.” She unclipped her cape and draped it over Catra, covering a surprising amount of her outfit from sight. “That’ll have to do. Stick close to us and don’t talk to anyone.”

They walked into town, attracting more stares than Catra was comfortable with. At some point during their walk, the sun had come up. It was a bright, sunny day, and Catra found herself wishing for rain as they neared the center of town.

“It looks like the carnival is happening right now,” Bow pointed out cheerfully.

“Carnival?” Catra asked flatly. Bow and Glimmer gave her a strange look.

“You know, like a giant party?” Bow pressed. Catra shook her head in confusion and Bow gave Glimmer a wounded look. “She doesn’t know what a party is. We _have_ to show her.”

“We’re just here for supplies!” Glimmer exclaimed, drawing more than a few sets of eyes their way. She sighed when Bow’s look didn’t waver. “ _Fine_. But stay as out of sight as you can!”

Bow dragged her to a truly ridiculous number of stalls and forced her to try foods she’d never even heard of before. She loved them all, not that she’d admit it to him. (She didn’t really have to. Both Bow and Glimmer could tell that she was having a good time, no matter how hard she tried to hide it. Her eyes were drawn to each new thing, and she found herself losing track of time and the people around her as each new experience sucked her in.)

It had been hours by the time they stopped to rest near the storyteller’s tent. Catra was watching him act out a scene from a play she’d never heard of when she spotted the strange creature. Bow was closest, and she felt no shame in asking him- “What is _that_?”

“That’s a horse. You’ve never seen a horse before?” Bow replied, smiling.

“Uh, no. We don’t have anything like that in the Fright Zone,” she replied carefully. She didn’t really want to ruin their nice day by bringing up her place in the Horde.

“Right, that makes sense. C’mon, you can meet him!” Bow told her, still smiling. He grabbed her by the shoulders and steered her towards it, then raised her hand and placed it on the horse’s nose. There was no immediate bonding, though Catra did feel an odd glee at learning this new thing. She had so many things to tell Adora!

The smile fell off of her face. Right, Adora… She’d never really stopped thinking about her best friend, but it was easier to ignore the fleeting thoughts when she was distracted by other things. She still hadn’t quite figured out how she was going to get in touch with Adora, or what exactly she was going to say to her.

And at that exact moment, the first explosion went off. Glimmer ran up to them, her expression panicked. “It’s the Horde! They’re attacking!”

“What? But why would they be attacking here? Thaymor is a peaceful, civilian town!” Bow exclaimed. Bow and Glimmer each grabbed one of Catra’s arms and led her to the safety of a nearby building. It was then that Catra remembered where she’d heard the name Thaymor.

“Oh god,” she said softly. “ _This_ is Thaymor? But it’s supposed to be a fortified rebellion fortress! This is just a town! There has to be a mistake.”

“Did you _know_ about this?” Glimmer demanded.

“No! Well… yes, but this is _not_ what they told us! The mission was supposed to be an attack on a rebellion stronghold, not a civilian town! And it’s being led by-“ Catra froze. “I can fix this.”

“What?” Glimmer demanded. Catra didn’t wait for her to protest; she took off towards the explosions. She pulled Glimmer’s cape off and let it fall to the ground behind her as she skidded to a stop directly in front of a tank.

“STOP!” she shouted, making her voice as loud and angry as she could. The tank did indeed stop in front of her. The hatch opened, and Catra watched as Adora scrambled to the ground in front of her.

“Catra! Thank god you’re okay! What, did you get captured ten seconds after leaving the Fright Zone? ‘Oh, nobody will ever know I left. I’ll be back before you can even miss me, Adora!’ Well guess what, dummy, I missed you!” Adora threw her arms around Catra, pulling her into a tight hug.

“Hey, Adora. I need you to listen to me, okay?” Catra asked, clutching her best friend tightly. She didn’t want to let go yet.

“There’s no time! We need to finish this attack so we can get you back home. I bet Shadow Weaver won’t even be angry with you when she finds out we won this battle together!” Adora replied. She started to pull away, but stopped as soon as she realized that Catra wasn’t ready to let her go. “Catra?”

“Everything is _wrong_ , Adora. The Horde lied to us. Shadow Weaver has been manipulating us! We can’t keep doing this,” Catra told her quickly.

“Uh… did you just figure all of that out? I mean, that’s what they do. The Horde lies, and Shadow Weaver is kinda _known_ for her manipulation. Did you forget that our plan all along has been to wait it out until we’re old enough to take control for ourselves? We’re almost there! So let’s finish this and go back,” Adora replied.

“No, Adora! You don’t get it,” Catra told her. She blinked back the tears that were forming in her eyes. This was it. She was going to lose her best friend. “I can’t go back.”

“What are you talking about?” Adora demanded. She pulled herself out of Catra’s embrace to frown at her, crossing her arms.

“Look around you! This isn’t the Thaymor that the Horde told you about. This is a civilian town! There are so many innocent people who will be hurt here if we continue this attack. You have to call it off, Adora. We have to stop this,” Catra told her.

Adora did look around then, seeing the smoldering remains of the buildings around her. Catra watched her tense up and clench her hands into fists. But before Catra could really have hope that Adora would actually listen to her, Adora’s fists unclenched and she shook her head.

“This is everything we’ve worked for,” Adora said softly. “We’ll be okay if we go back. I’ve got your back and you’ve got mine. We watch out for each other. So please, just get in the tank with me and come _home_.”

“The Fright Zone can’t be my home anymore,” Catra told her gently. “It never really was. _You_ were my home, Adora. You still are. But I can’t go back there with you. Please… come with me. Come learn the things that the Horde has been trying to hide from us.”

Catra held her hand out to Adora, and prayed to every god that might listen that Adora would take it. Adora stared down at Catra’s hand for a long time. Then she looked up and met Catra’s eyes. Just as she was reaching out, Glimmer shouted across the courtyard to Catra.

“Catra! Catch!” Glimmer threw the sword to Catra as hard as she could, and Catra raised her hand automatically. Catching the sword was like a reflex she never knew she had until she’d used it. The sword pulsed in her hand, begging to be used. “End this!”

Catra met Adora’s eyes steadily as she raised the sword. This would either make or break her relationship with Adora, and she knew it. “ _For the honor of Greyskull!_ ”

The transformation was just as fast and just as breathtaking the second time. Catra didn’t have to look down at herself to know that she’d become the same giant warrior as before. Her eyes stayed on Adora as her friend took in the transformation with wide eyes.

“Catra-“ she started, but the words seemed to catch in her throat. Catra turned away, putting her attention on the tanks and robots that were attacking the village of Thaymor. She made quick work of them, jumping from the tops and plunging her sword down to destroy them. When she landed on the ground again, she was surrounded by dust and smoke. It didn’t take her long to locate Adora in all of the debris.

Adora hadn’t moved. She was openly gaping at Catra as she stood. Catra felt the transformation fading away, and was almost relieved to see that she’d gone back to her normal self. When she looked back up, Adora wasn’t standing in front of her. Catra’s heart sank, thinking that her best friend had left her behind. When she turned to find Glimmer and Bow, Adora was _right there_.

“That was amazing,” Adora breathed, reaching out to hug Catra again.

“Uh… thanks?” Catra replied, dropping the sword to return the embrace.

“If you say that the Horde isn’t your home, then it can’t be mine, either. If you’re leaving for real, then I’m going with you,” Adora told her.

“You… you mean it?” Catra asked. She wasn’t even ashamed that her voice was shaking. Adora nodded against her, and Catra could feel her friend’s tears against her shoulder. Catra melted against her, letting all of her tension fade.

“I promised a long time ago that I’d always be your friend,” Adora reminded her. “I’m not breaking that promise now.”

“We have to go see the queen in Bright Moon. You know this won’t be easy, right?” Catra asked. She was still waiting for Adora to change her mind, but she knew in her heart that it wouldn’t happen.

“Nothing ever is,” Adora agreed. “But we’ll be alright as long as we’re together.”

“As long as we’re together, we can do anything,” Catra whispered. It was as much a memory as it was a statement, and Adora seemed to understand that. They would be fine, because they would be together.

Together, they could do _anything_.


End file.
